With the newly mated body and chassis off to have a roll cage installed, there was nothing for it but to work on the doors, hood and trunk. By the time I arrived, the guys already had made some cardboard templates and nibbled out the first door panel out of sheet aluminum. Nothing shouts 'RACECAR' quite like a set of aluminum inner door panels held on by a ton of screws. In these pictures, John dresses the edge of the passenger side panel while Mark drills a hole in the driver side for the door latch. We drilled a lot of holes and turned a lot of screws but it was worth it. Joe polished one side, while Mark polishes the other. Here's the completed pair. They look fast just sitting there, don't they?
Next on the agenda was (shudder) The Hood. The hood has those bent corners peculiar to Studebakers. I'm sure, when that happened, the owner was just sick. We picked up some of those corner braces from Classic Enterprises and, after much banging, bending, and snipping, Ed and Joe clamped them in. A few minutes later they were tacked in and Ed was making sparks whilst smoothing out the welds. Some weak/broken welds were discovered in other areas around the hood. Mark and Joe welded them up nicely. Here are a couple of pictures of the finished repairs: 1, 2.
That left the trunk lid which Mark and Ed stood on, then banged with a hammer. It actually came out pretty nice but will need a brace in that corner.
